John Forbes Nash Jr.: A Beautiful Mind

John Forbes Nash Jr. was a student at the Carnegie Institute of Technology who at age 19, graduated with both a B.S. and M.S. in mathematics. Nash accepted a scholarship to graduate program of mathematics at Princeton University. It was during his time at Princeton that John began his work on game theory; an idea so original that it was later dubbed the “Nash Equilibrium”. Despite being deemed a “mathematical genius" by both his peers and professors, Nash was not particularly liked among colleagues. He was described as arrogant, egotistical, and insensitive. Although he was not considered very charming, it was there in New Jersey that Nash began a relationship with Eleanor Stier, a nurse at the university hospital. When Stier became pregnant

At this time, his wife was pregnant with their first child. John became paranoid, aggressive and anxious to the point that Alicia was forced admitted him to McLean Hospital for treatment. After being assesses by physiatrists, Nash was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Despite what was depicted in the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, Nash never believed he worked for the pentagon or saw imaginary people, his delusions his delusions were far more disorganized. At the height of his madness, Nash believed that aliens were speaking to him through hidden messages in the newspaper. He told colleagues at the university that he was the pop and the emperor of Antarctica. Nash eventually came to believe he was on a holy mission to discover with a mythical equation that would prove the existence of a higher dignity. Eventually his conspiracy theories became so extravagant that they put a great deal of stress on his relationship with his wife, and in 1963 Alicia filed for divorce. Throughout his time in Princeton, the hospital and the remained of his life, Nash never reported seeing visual hallucinations. He did however begin to hear voices around 1964. He spent over nine years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, where he received antipsychotic drugs and insulin shock therapy. The first time he was released he left the country to travel around Europe, claiming to be a refugee. He was eventually deported